Tuesday 22 June 2021

Paganini Horror (1989)

The kind of bonkers Italian horror movie from the eighties that we fans seem to automatically love, Paganini Horror is a film I long intended to mark off my own watchlist, and others who knew me told me that I should enjoy it.

It’s all to do with a cursed piece of music written by Paganini, which connects seemingly random events, from a small girl killing her mother to a rock band having a nightmare of a time in an isolated house as they film a music video. Logic is, of course, thrown out of the window early on, so viewers can quickly decide whether or not they're willing to go along with the general lunacy of it all.

Directed by Luigi Cozzi, who also co-wrote the movie with star Daria Nicolodi, this is the kind of film you need to watch with your brain in a certain mode (maybe not switched off, but certainly just idling over without being moved into any gear). It’s not actually a good film, but it is enjoyably silly, especially in the grand finale.

The script is hilarious, with those moments you often get in these films that have characters discussing the most ridiculous ideas with complete earnestness, and the acting is . . . well, it is on par with other films of this ilk.

Aside from Nicolodi, you get a fun role for Donald Pleasence, playing someone offering a kind of Faustian pact for those seeking a better life, and Jasmine Maimone (Kate), Maria Cristina Mastrangeli (Lavinia), Michel Klippstein (Elena), and Pascal Persiano (Daniel) make up the rest of the main cast. Pietro Genuardi is just fine as Mark Singer, and you get someone creeping about as a murderous spirit of Paganini. 

Sadly, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I hoped I would. The gore is uneven, in terms of both the pacing of the kills and the quality of the effects, and it feels too padded out, despite not exactly having an epic runtime. There’s still fun to be had though, but connoisseurs of Italian horror from this decade may enjoy it a lot more than I did.

5/10

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